Tag Archives: Facebook

I have finally deleted the only remaining account I had on the social media platform run by the company Facebook. This will free up lots of time previously wasted in the orchestrated cyberworld of Facebook, enabling it to be spent in the real world. People can reach me by email (remember email?) at the address disclosed on the page appropriately named Email.

The real world (including most people addicted to Facebook) doesn’t give a yoctofuck* about: the trip you just started; that you were upgraded (or not upgraded) to first class; that you arrived at your destination; the country you’re visiting; the city you’re visiting; the bar you’re visiting; the drink you’re drinking; the breakfast you’re eating; the lunch you’re eating; the dinner you’re eating; the hotel you’re staying in; that you’ve come back from your trip; your qualification as a certified trainer (and downline developer) for some new-age feelgood activity; your dietary religion; a picture of your cat; a picture of your dog; a picture of you standing in front of … Continue reading →

If you spend the amount of time required to create a Facebook persona that securely posits you as the best thing in your field since sliced bread, it’s unlikely that you will have the time to actually live that persona by walking that walk. I sometimes wonder whether people who post over 50 times each day (sometimes at great length) ever step back for a moment and think about whether people will believe that they are actually walking that walk. Some of these personas are at best harmless fantasies, but some could also indicate a serious addiction to social media and an obsessive need to be liked and looked up … Continue reading →

I have just finished reading Jaron Lanier’s Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now” and find that Lanier’s revelations about what social media platforms are doing pretty much match my apprehensions about social media. In fact, in some areas, particularly regarding the automatic fine tuning of and learning by algorithms, Lanier reveals ways that opaque social media algorithms operate that I had not imagined. Lanier refers to what social media platforms do as BUMMER (Behaviors of Users Modified and Made into an Empire for Rent), although he appropriately replaces modified with manipulated where appropriate, and it is clear that the term manipulation is often appropriate. He lists the … Continue reading →

Executive summary: Anonymity in cyberspace should be eliminated. There has been lots of talk lately about the responsibility of social media companies for removing content that promotes terrorism. I agree that they should do that. But complaints about terrorist hatred and recruiting people to implement their ideas completely ignore the root problem, which is that social media companies (and the internet in general) virtually assure their customers that they can remain anonymous, even to the social media companies themselves. It becomes easier to be irresponsible or criminal if you are assured of your anonymity. For example, you can establish any number of fake accounts and anonymous pages on Facebook without … Continue reading →

I wonder whether people stop to think before they knee-jerk share or like. Think about what? Well, for starters: Most Facebook pages (not user accounts, although tens of millions of those are also faked) are anonymous and therefore not credible. And many Facebook pages list a URL, but that is almost never any help in discovering who is posting their content and operating the Facebook page and website, because they are masked. How in the world can such a masked website purporting to operate a Facebook page have (1) a privacy policy and (2) a terms of service page if they hide the identity of the owner of the website … Continue reading →